Students of the Year Fresno
Jonah Nahoul | 2 & A Half Persians
Jonah's Students of the Year Fundraiser
Dear Friends And Family,
This year, in these unprecedented times, I have been given the unique opportunity to help others. I am very excited to begin this fundraising journey, and I sincerely hope you can join the fight against blood cancer.
Each year, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) launches its Student of the Year fundraising campaign, and I was honored to join this year’s efforts as a team member for Team 2 & A Half Persians. I am writing to you today to ask for your support of LLS’s mission in its efforts to find cures for blood cancers and to assist patients and families as they battle this disease.
From February 19, 2021 – April 9, 2021, our team goal is to raise $25,000 which will go directly to LLS in support of its longstanding goal: a world without blood cancers. If we raise (dollar goal over $50K), we can link our team name to an LLS-funded research portfolio to honor our efforts to help people with blood cancers.
Like many of you, I have witnessed first-hand the debilitating effects that leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease and myeloma can have on those who suffer from these blood cancers, and on the friends and family who care for and nurture their loved ones. In 2008, my uncle, Heady Shahnematollahi was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Me, being a kindergartner at the time, I was none the wiser to the situation. I remember the countless times my uncle would pick me up from my grandma’s house. The car top was down, the music was on, and his smile widened as he drove at obnoxious speeds to my elementary school. Those moments are ones that I still look back on with a grin. Luckily, my uncle managed to survive his fight. However, I could not begin to imagine how devastating it would’ve been to lose him at that time, and unfortunately, that is the reality many families around the world have had to live through. That is why I joined this fight against blood cancer, I want to fundraise in the hopes that at least one family will be saved from that reality.
The impacts of the money raised through programs like Student of The Year have such a massive impact on cancer research. For instance, LLS helped advance 55 of the 65 blood cancer treatment options approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since 2017 to date. And many of these LLS-supported therapies not only help blood cancer patients but are now approved to treat patients with other types of cancer like breast, liver, colon cancer, and noncancerous diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases.
This is an organization that is making an impact with the dollars it raises, and I’m proud to be associated with LLS.
This is where you come in.
You can make a donation in any amount by clicking "Donate Today" on the left hand side of your screen.
If financial support is simply not an option, there are other ways to help. For one, simply sending copies of this letter to coworkers, friends, and/or family helps a lot!
Sincerely,
Jonah Nahoul
p.s. Does your company have a matching gifts program that might be willing to match your donation?
1 Comment
Prisca Shiralian Thomas
Great work Jonah!! :)